shadowmancer
by BlakDawn
Summary: brom's past is even more clouded than anyone ever imagined. his most important mission as a rider is about to take place, but he's with an ally he's convinced will kill him. pre-inheritance
1. Chapter 1

It would be silly to think that Brom was only a story teller, rider, magician, founder of the Varden and father of Eragon shade slayer. But that is for another story, this introduces one of his strangest friends, a shadow named Fiir.

"there you are Brom and Saphira" Brom bowed slightly before Vrael, and then initiated the traditional elven greeting, when it ended Vrael walked behind his desk and began sifting through the many pieces of paper that littered his untidy desk, finally finding a wad of paper he quickly scanned it before handing it to Brom

"do you know what these are?" the first piece of paper held an elegant drawing of two eggs, one violet and the other a brilliant amethyst. Brom shook his head

"these two eggs are apparently the only eggs from Bid'Daum" Brom head shot up and he looked very surprised, with good reason

"they are currently guarded by five riders, however they have failed to contact me for three months and I cannot scry them due to the spells placed over them by Eragon, so I want you and Saphira to try and find them and see what the problem is. Any questions?"

"where precisely are they located?"

"due to the special nature of the eggs and what they represent, the eggs are randomly moved every three months, the only people who know where it is are the five riders, and they haven't contacted me with the new position, any other questions?" Brom shook his head while simultaneously reading the history of the eggs

"obviously, the five riders that were selected are among the most powerful of our order, so if this problem is a threat you wouldn't stand a chance, so we have found someone to accompany you" then next to Vrael the shadows began shifting and forming together before falling away to form a suit of armour for the man before him, he looked about 20 and apart from the black shifting armour he had two gauntlets both of which were black with a number of different jewels embedded in each, he currently had his head bowed, but when he raised it Brom saw that his face was almost chalk white with a web of black criss-crossing it, but his eyes were even stranger, one was pure black and the other pure white. Brom took an involuntary step backwards and put his hand on his sword

"shade" he growled. The man smiled with his pure black lips

"not quite, Brom, I'm a shadow" he held out his hand

"Fiir Jucoor"

AN how was it. I need you're feedback in this. So plz plz plz review


	2. Chapter 2

I just realized something, this story doesn't take inspiration from shadow rider, which I have to recommend, it can be found here .net/s/6058788/1/Book_4_Shadow_Rider so check that out.

Brom took his hand, quite stiffly, and shook it. Fiir smiled

"you are...nervous about my appearance?" he didn't wait for confirmation but Brom nodded any way.

"it is merely part of power, as a shadowmancer I am at one with the shadows, as you saw by the shadow jump." Brom looked confused

"shadow jumping is where I become a shadow, I can move and then reform my body"

"so why don't you just shadow jump and find the eggs, that seems easier"

"it has a limited distance as eventually my form can't be reformed and I stay a shadow. Besides, when they see me what do you thin they are going to do? Shadow I may be, but I'm not immortal"

"oh"

"if you've finished can we get back to the main problem" they both turned to face Vrael

"you need to set off as quickly as possible, I've included where their last known position was, so set out and see if there's any evidence of a fight or the eggs" Brom bowed slightly and walked out, while Fiir shadow jumped, presumably to his room. When the door closed Fiir reformed next to Vrael

"he fears me" Vrael sighed

"with good reason"

"if we are to work together, he's going to have to trust me" he thought about it for a second "a spar might help"

"how?"

"think about it, he needs to know I wont just kill him and I need to know his fighting prowess"

"fine, but make it quick" Fiir didn't respond but curled his left hand into a fist, on his gauntlet the central black diamond light up and a beam of pure shadow emerged in the shape of a blade.

"I plan too" then he shadow jumped back to his room

_if Vrael trusts him I think we can too_ Brom frowned for a second mulling it over before responding

_maybe, but the name Fiir doesn't fill me with confidence, and he's a shadowmancer, what could they want with the egg? _

_I don't know little one, but you must get some sleep, if he does fight you, you want to be able to fend him off _Brom sighed slightly before finally going to sleep, but Saphira stayed awake thinking about what they knew of the mysterious man. Finally she gave up, hoping that they might find out more on this little adventure of theirs.

"I have reached the riders, sir, my...companion seems nervous of me" the figure before him, in the water didn't react but then he heard the mental voice of his master _just as well, be on your guard with this one, I sense that he is more important than his status would suggest_ "very well sir, I will contact you as soon as it is possible once we have started" his master didn't bother responding but withdrew from the mental contact and Fiir stopped the spell. Then he allowed the shadows to pull him into them, enshrouding and protecting him while he slept.

An the next chapter will be them sparring and the first day. Plz plz plz review


	3. Chapter 3

PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ

REVIEW!

as Brom slept he dreamed, it was not one of his usual, 'little toadstools started dancing with me and then we all ate clouds that tasted like new leather (AN for those of you that don't know new leather is or rather was put in a barrel of crap), it was him seeing Fiir, who was bowed slightly before a man coved in shadow, while talking to him ,but Brom couldn't make out the words, then Fiir spun around and smiled before walking out of the chamber, then the man Fiir was talking to looked at Brom for a second and then leapt froward and stabbed him in the gut, then he held out his hand a ball of shadow formed on it before the man poured it down his throat, he stopped suddenly and Brom opened his eyes, which he hadn't realised he'd shut, and he saw Fiir and in one hand he had a sword which was thrust through the man's throat, Fiir then noticed that Brom had woken up, he picked Brom up and set him down, he pointed at the wound and Brom felt his head nod before he whispered

"Waíse heill"

then Brom faded and he gasped and opened his eyes, he was still in his slightly uncomfortable bed. Saphira was still asleep in the bowl in the next room, so Brom decided not to wake her up just yet, so he quickly put on his clothes, all elven, and trudged downstairs, it was the middle of summer so he decided against lighting the fire, then he got the bowl and filled it up with water from the nearby stream and heated it up, once he had done that he got an exquisite and very expensive mug, a present from his mother for him becoming a rider, and sprinkled some tea leaves into pot of boiling water, then he stirred it a bit and waited for it to infuse, while he did he got the wad of paper the Vrael had given him and started reading it, a few minutes later he got up and put the paper to one side, picked up the pot and poured it into the mug, he then put it down on the table next to him and continued reading, unfortunately he lost track of time and when he reached for the mug he found the tea was room temperature, sighing he reheated the mug and quickly drank the tea, before rushing upstairs to wake up Saphira, who was still asleep and put on his belt and sword, she woke with a low growl and flapped he wings a few times to get feeling back into them, then she looked at him _I'm going hunting _Brom smiled as he watched her take off, still entranced by her beauty

–

the shadows unceremoniously threw Fiir out and onto the floor at the rosy time of 4 am, he swore quite loudly at the shadows before stalking over to hi pack, as he opened it he picked through the things in it, he finally found the small flask of _hedorum,_ he drank it eagerly, but after a few mouthfuls he stopped and put it back. Then he pulled out the jet black sword and gave it a quick twirl and then frowned, he gave it another twirl before pulling out its sheath and belting it to him, he pushed the sword into it, he then allowed himself to be pulled into the shadows, as he shadow jumped towards the training ground he pondered this strange new assignment from his master, certainly the boy was nothing special and as for the actual, search for the dragon eggs, assignment, this Brom rider could probably do in a few weeks without his assistance, the reasons weren't particularly good and he got the feeling there was something more to this than he could guess.

–

when Brom had finished with the paper he hid it underneath the massive pot he used for scrying. He then heard a knock on his door

"come in" he heard the distinctive banging of Morzan as he made his way into the kitchen. Brom turned to face him

"who were you scrying?" it was a friendly question but Brom still cursed Morzan's perceptiveness

"I was just scrying my mother, you know how she took my father's death" Morzan looked sad, they had both flown down to comfort Brom's mother when her husband of 28 years had just dropped dead, and without him she was running out of money to pay the rent. So they had got her a new job and given her enough money to pay her rent for a few months. Morzan walked over and patted him on the back

"well, I know the perfect thing to get your mind off it, a spar" Brom grinned, Morzan may have been stronger but he was faster, and speed always beats strength, until strength captures speed.

"fine, I'll grab some Faelnirv" he then walked into the storage room to get some, what Morzan had seen but didn't mention was that the scrying bowl didn't have any water in it, nor was it wet when he put his hand against the inside. Then Brom reappeared with 2 small bottles of Faelnirv and they both set off.

–

Fiir had largely been ignored by the riders that come onto the training field to practise, except for a few wide eyed trainers who had appeared at 5 am and saw him running around the training field, which was about a mile around the outside. He also ignored them except for a few riders that couldn't have had dragons more than a few months, which he watched with growing amusement, once they to had got onto the training field at about 7 am. Then he saw Brom and another rider walking towards the training grounds, he decided not to interfere as he could gauge what level of expertise Brom had with a sword. When they finally got to the training grounds they both drew their swords and blocked the edge, something Fiir had never done, even in training and faced each other. Morzan attacked first by charging and bringing his sword in a massive arc down towards Brom ,who shifted to the left and brought up his sword allowing it to deflect the blow the the right, Morzan then spun his entire body and the sword whistled through the air and would have easily cut Brom in two if he hadn't jumped up just missing the sword and punching Morzan, which combined with the swing caused him stumble back a bit, he barely had time to recover before Brom charged at him, Morzan brought up _é__nnad slytha t_o block the blow but Brom used the downward force to leap over the giant of a man he then rapped Morzan's knees causing them to buckle, he then gracefully spun the sword around and held it up to Morzan's neck, Morzan then struggled for a few minutes before giving up

"I submit" Brom smiled and helped up his friend

"you might be good, but how good are you against me?" everyone on the training field froze at the voice, which was distinctly drawn out and placed unusual stress on strange parts of words, the crowd parted to reveal Fiir, Brom looked at him for a second, before picking up a bottle of Faelnirv and drinking the entire bottle

"what do you want?"

"a spar" Brom groaned in annoyance, something that Fiir didn't miss

"and here I was thinking that the riders could fight armies single handedly, you're exhausted after one fight" Brom glared at him, petty he knew that, but it didn't matter to Brom. Fiir just shrugged

"that's what I have...inferred from the present situation and your sigh at my suggestion of a spar" Brom growled and grabbed his sword while Morzan and about 20 trainees looked at the two combatants, then Brom noticed something

"you say I don't want to spar but you don't have a sword" he then got a sinking feeling when Fiir smirked and curled his left fist, like last night a blade about 3 1/ feet long erupted from the gauntlet he then looked at Brom

"no sword?" he then notice Brom blocking his sword

"dear dear dear, don't bother blocking your sword and don't hold back on your magic, I want to know precisely how good you are" Brom stopped the flow of magic and the block vanished. Both of them looked at each other, neither moved beyond blinking, which was a rare occurrence, then Brom felt that Saphira was flying back to his house, he talked to her for a second and she changed course to the training ground. Finally Fiir charged and Brom prepared for an easy deflection but just as he was about to Fiir disappeared into the shadows, Brom wheeled around ready for anything, when he saw the shadows reform he charged not giving him an opportunity to block him but he raised a clenched right fist and a black shield formed, undbitr seemed to get stuck in the shield, but it was more like it was holding it in place, Brom saw Fiir smirk slightly before wrenching the sword from Brom's grasp, and kicking him in the chest, sending Brom flying back, while Fiir used the momentum to land about 15 foot away with a dull thud, Fiir then threw the sword in the ground where it cut in cleanly up to its hilt, Brom was very surprised by this, Fiir's build was was very lean, if he was entirely human, he would looked at the brink of starvation or death. But he obviously was stronger than he let on, Fiir then disappeared as he shadow jumped, Brom took no chances but ran for his sword, Fiir didn't appear, if he did Fiir would win without question, but when he reached his sword he saw something, the sword had about eight shadows, when he pulled it the shadows went taught, as if he was pulling them, which he supposed, he was. Behind him he hear a chuckle, he stood up and spun around and saw Fiir, only without his sword

"in light of your present...lack of a sword I have decided to test your strength in hand to hand" Fiir had taken off the gauntlets and Brom noted that his hands were similar to his face in that they were chalk white with a criss cross of black, his fingernails were alternating black and white, Fiir saw his interest

"I actually had this done by putting more shadow into the black fingernails, or rather, the skin underneath and removed shadow from the others" he then ran forward and threw a punch at Brom's gut, Brom easily grabbed the fist and returned the shot, but when it hit Fiir's chest it went straight through, he looked at Fiir and Fiir just shrugged before punching him with his right hand, it was less accurate but a bit more powerful and it sent Brom reeling back, Fiir didn't take any chances, he leapt forward and closed both hands around Brom's neck, when Brom still struggled he began applying pressure to Brom's neck, when Brom still struggling he lifted Brom off the floor and held him like that until he stopped struggling, then he let go and Brom fell to the floor and began gasping

"you must understand, you would have fought back if I hadn't done as such, so prolonging the fight" he then heard a roar and on instinct he shadow jumped, where he had been only seconds earlier a massive sapphire blue paw had smashed down, which would have killed him instantly, he reformed and the dragon growled at him

"I'll be going now, be ready to leave at 5 am, or I'll have to drag you out of bed myself" he then shadow jumped leaving Brom and Saphira alone, Saphira turned to her rider _did he do anything? _Brom quickly checked and found that Fiir hadn't done any permanent damage _no _Saphira growled as she looked at his memories _we should be careful, he might be able to defeat me _Brom sighed and began trudging back his house, he didn't look for Morzan, and he was long gone by the time he had reached his house, so he didn't realize that he had copied the paper he had hidden and taken it with him.

AN I know Morzan's sword is called zar'roc, but I think that he changed it's name when he joined the forsworn, in this it's translated as eternal sleep any other questions just PM me.


	4. Chapter 4

r u all blind to the big review button? I'm also looking for a beta.

Brom woke with a start, he glanced around, it was still dark and he guessed it was around 3 am, he remembered what Fiir had said the day before, and dragged himself out of bed, stumbling slightly in the dark until he found his door, which wasn't that difficult, considering he had been in the same house for 3 years and could probably make his way around it blindfolded

"going somewhere?" Brom froze at the voice, which seemed to be emanating from the blackness surrounding him

"it is" he glanced around, how could he read his mind, he had primed his defences the second he had heard Fiir's voice

"because your in my domain" then the shadows shifted and Brom could just make out Fiir's frame walking towards him, Brom stepped back involuntarily

"am I really that scary?" he sighed and walked past Brom and opened the door

"how...how did you get in?" Brom saw Fiir smiling

"I've been in your room since about 3 in the afternoon, you didn't notice the shadows?" Brom shook his head

"now, I'm guessing you haven't packed" Fiir looked around and saw the pack Brom had hastily put together, he walked over to that and began riffling through it he frowned and reclosed it

"what about a tinderbox, or a bottle, or your paper?"

"paper?"

"yes, the paper given to you by Vrael" Brom nodded into the darkness but had feeling Fiir knew he had understood, he then excited the room to get what he was missing, while he did that Fiir walked into the next room and woke up Saphira, she was not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination and was sorely tempted to just hit him with one of her paws, however she had seen his powers and he could probably just shadow jump if she tried, so she got up and shook he head to clear the headache, then she looked around for the annoying man, unfortunately he had made his escape and was probably downstairs.

As it happened Fiir was downstairs trying to avoid dropping down asleep, insomniac he might be but he still needed sleep, while waiting for Brom to be ready, by this time Saphira was awake and ready to go, unfortunately Brom was still looking for bits and bobs, Fiir sighed and waved his hand, the shadows responded and pulled out the various items he was looking for and laid them out, Brom looked at Fiir for a moment before putting the things in his pack and lifting it onto his shoulders. Then they both walked out of the house and Brom closed the door, they both saw Saphira was ready and Brom got the saddle from the storage shed next to his house and put it on, when he had done that he climbed into the saddle and saw Fiir shadow jumping onto Saphira's back, once they were ready she flapped her wings a bit, to get a guide of wind and its strength before taking off, not that it mattered, a tiny south easterly wind didn't make much difference, once they were soaring over the various houses that dotted the island Brom turned around to see that Fiir wasn't in his seat, he didn't remember seeing a body falling and the straps were still done, then he saw the shadows reforming just behind the saddle, Fiir then sat back down in the saddle, Brom looked at him disapprovingly before turning back around,

the flight was fairly uneventful, except for the various gravity-defying stunts that Saphira did, which she did often. By the time they landed it was almost 6 am, by Fiir's reckoning, Brom didn't argue with him, you didn't when the person working out was a shadowmancer and he was using shadow's to work it out. Once they had landed and Brom got the saddle off Saphira she took off to go hunting, she might have been a dragon but carrying another person and lots of baggage didn't help with her endurance, once she had gone Brom started a small fire and began taking out some herbs and berries, he then found a small stream and filled his bottle, when he made it back he cast a small spell to purify it before pouring into the small cooking pot, once it had boiled he then added the berries along with some Fagnell roots and seasoned it with herbs, he then waited fir it to cook before tasting it, certainly he could have made a better dish of he had more ingredients, but it was all right, when Fiir got a bowl he put it to one side and summoned some shadow and placed it over the bowl, once Brom had finished the meal he washed the bowl in the stream and put it back ,but Fiir still hadn't touched the dish

"are you going to eat that?" Fiir glanced at him annoyed that he had been distracted

"of course, why would I expend my own power keeping a dish warm when I wouldn't eat it" Brom agreed with the logic but couldn't help but have questions

"what are you?" Fiir smiled at the question,. He wondered when it would come up

"I am a shadowmancer"

"so why have I never heard of these shadowmancer's before?"

"we're are a small part of the necromanic guild..."

"necromanic?" Fiir nodded but realized that Brom couldn't see he had

"shadowmancers are a sect of general necromancy, I'm sure you have hear of the 'black falls incident'?" Brom nodded and shivered, he had been about three when he had got the news that a necromancer had killed an entire town and turned them into his army

"now he was a part of the 'shaman cult' which believed that they had been given the power over the 'lesser' humans to do as they pleased, in fact he was their council member"

"council member?"

"oh yes, sometimes I forget you don't know about us, the council is made up of 20 members each representing the 20 cults that make up almost all of the necromanic acts, this includes the shadowmancer's, we are actually quite a moderate sect and we vote for our own shadowmancer council, who then elect a chairman, who will stand on the necromanic council"

"what happens in the less moderate sects?"

"oh, it's a bloody free for all and whoever is most powerful stands on the council, it's these cults that often make the armies of the _blacor_..." he trailed off when he noted Brom's confused look

"what's a blacor?" Fiir thought for a moment

"it doesn't have a direct translation, I suppose the nearest thing would be 'bond-dead-slave'. Now were was I? Oh yes, but it reflects badly on the more moderate cults"

"moderate? you're all necromancers, you kill to get your power." Fiir looked at him for a second

"heaven help me, I had to go on a mission with an idiot"

"idiot? I'm smarter than you"

"really? Have you had three hundred years to perfect your art?" Brom gazed at him, open mouthed

"yes three hundred, forging these sort of gauntlets take decades, at the very least" Fiir laughed and flexed the gauntlets before continuing "just like your rider sword these are made to our precise specifications rather than just handed down father to son, although...if you were to teach him, or her, I have known female necromancers, but they are rare, actually come to think of it, shadowmancers are the only cult that I know that allow females to join their ranks, I'm going off on a tangent aren't I? Never mind, the point if, if you train them to use your combat style they could probably use your sword, but it would be best to get their own" Brom nodded, it made sense. Then they lapsed into silence before Brom thought of a question

"can you have necromanic powers and not realize?"

"i suppose, yes, the most famous, for you anyway, example is Blagden, now Evandar to slow down death would be a elanert necromancer"

"a what?"

"elanert, a necromancer who specialises in controlling death as a concept"

"so could I..."

"I suppose you could be a necromancer, but I can't sense a spark in you, in cases like yours the power only shows itself in very dangerous situations, just like Evandar, who was almost killed In his duel"

"so what are your powers precisely, I mean I know that you use shadows but that isn't much to go on" Fiir sighed before putting down his book

"as you know our powers comes from the controlling of shadows, however even we don't know why a shadow has power or why we can control it, I suppose that shadowmancers aren't really necromancers at all, we rely on, not the actual shadows, but the err...life-not their-shadows, that's the nearest translation I can think of, now like other necromancers we are mindbreaker's, but to a different degree, while they micro-manage their slaves, we macro-manage ours" he noticed the look of confusion on Brom's face "micro-manage is were you control their every action minutely macro-manage is were you ask for say a sword and the shadows from into what you need, not what you want. While we don;t understand this, it's probably because they rely on dead bodies, which aren't particularly intelligent"

"can I ask a question" Fiir shrugged

"why are you telling me this"

"two reasons, one you need to know, in a fight, which may happen, you need to know precisely what I am capable of and two you need to trust me, believe me I don't like this set-up either but we don't have much choice" they hadn't noticed the time and when they did it was around 10 pm, Brom took the first watch and watched as Fiir sunk into the shadows

AN one review? Seriously how did you like this, It's just an intro into the powers of a shadowmancer, if ur confused just PM me and I'll try to explain.


	5. sorry

just a quick update for all current stories

as of the 10/11/10 openoffice stopped working as did all other text document edtors except wordpad.

as such, all new chapters have basically been lost, so i'm starting over on all of them

this message will be taken down when I have rewritten the new chapters

sorry 


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